Heather McRobie

Heather McRobie is a novelist, journalist, and former co-editor of openDemocracy 50.50. She has written for Al Jazeera, the Guardian, the New Statesman, and Foreign Policy, amongst others. She researches and lectures on public policy at the Higher School of Economics in Moscow, and previously studied at the University of Oxford, University of Bologna and University of Sarajevo. Her latest book Literary Freedom: a Cultural Right to Literature explores the issue of hate speech in literature and the philosophy of freedom of expression. Follow her on twitter @heathermcrobie

The evolution of Bosnia’s protest movement: an interview with Jasmin Mujanović

Bosnia’s protest movement is already receiving less media coverage, with some declaring the end of the ‘Bosnian spring’. But the causes behind the ongoing protests are complex, and neither the causes nor the protests have disappeared. Heather McRobie interviews Jasmin Mujanović.

By Heather McRobie and Jasmin Mujanović

/ 7 May 2014

Listen to Bosnia's plenums

After almost twenty years of stagnant purgatory under the Dayton constitution, it is Bosnians themselves who are building democracy, from the ground up.

By Heather McRobie

/ 25 Mar 2014

Still 'Our Man in Havana': foreign policy reporting's elitism problem

Foreign policy reporting in the British media is dominated by an elite and a false neutrality presenting a particular ideology simply as authoritative. The question of who is positioned as the voice of reason must be examined.

By Heather McRobie

/ 20 Mar 2014

Martha Nussbaum, empathy, and the moral imagination

The emphasis in Martha Nussbaum’s work on the importance of the emotions in moral philosophy also posits that story-telling plays a central role in expanding our empathy and as such is a necessary part of a just society.

By Heather McRobie

/ 7 Mar 2014

Gender violence in the media: elusive reality

The death of Reeva Steenkamp has highlighted the problematic way in which the media treat the issue of domestic violence. We need a better way to transmit and therefore tackle the reality – how violence is built into our lives and how space is gendered, says Heather McRobie.

By Heather McRobie

/ 6 Mar 2014

Egypt: a tale of two constitutions

Reading the 2012 and 2013 Egyptian constitutions together is less a tale of successive steps towards constitutional democracy and more an illustration of how the revolution was lost in two successive jolts – first Morsi’s Islamism without legitimacy, and then the violent militarism that accompanie

By Heather McRobie

/ 16 Jan 2014

Austerity policies in Europe are fuelling social injustice - and violating human rights

A new report by the Council of Europe provides detailed evidence that austerity measures have corroded civil and political rights and made economic, social and cultural rights less attainable. Will the governments of Europe recognise the social cost of austerity – and can ‘human rights’ work as a

By Heather McRobie

/ 23 Dec 2013

Austerity and domestic violence: mapping the damage

Austerity has taken its toll on domestic violence provisions, in a fracturing that cuts across institutions, sectors and lives in the UK

By Heather McRobie

/ 3 Dec 2013

When the judge is a woman

Redressing the historical and structural male domination of judicial systems requires that we consider the impact of gender on judges, citizens, and the text of law itself. Reflections on the conversations at the ‘le juge est une femme’ conference at the Université libre de Bruxelles.

By Heather McRobie

/ 19 Nov 2013

She Left Me the Gun: on story-telling and re-telling

Emma Brockes’ exploration of her mother’s life in South Africa, and what made her leave, is also a study in writing the complexity of women’s lives, and the powerful and elusive nature of story-telling.

By Heather McRobie

/ 7 Nov 2013

Literature, empathy and the moral imagination

Great works of literature are often love-letters to the form itself, but moral philosophy has rarely taken story-telling seriously. The work of Martha Nussbaum shows that the novel is key to social justice, through the role that reading plays in developing our moral imagination

By Heather McRobie

/ 30 Oct 2013

Slavenka Drakulić: violence, memory, and the nation

Writer and journalist Slavenka Drakulić reflects on the use of sexual violence in war, the psyche in conflict, and the gap between official history and personal memory in the former Yugoslavia.

By Slavenka Drakulic and Heather McRobie

/ 7 Oct 2013